


Haven't You Heard? Laughter is Infectious

by ApprenticedMagician



Series: All for the Jokes [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: But I don't care, Everyone's happy, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Neil probably smiles too much, like EXTREME fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApprenticedMagician/pseuds/ApprenticedMagician
Summary: Ever since he unlocked his genuine laugh with the group at Wymack's, Neil's sense of humour has been increasing. The Foxes' game to jostle the laughter out of Neil Josten via jokes has a Round 2.alternatively; 5 times the Foxes witnessed Neil laughing and +1 time he got away with it.





	Haven't You Heard? Laughter is Infectious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/gifts).
  * Inspired by [All for the Jokes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10466205) by [Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth). 



> This is a sequel to the fic "All for the Jokes" by Leahelisabeth! You don't have to read it to understand what's going on here, but I recommend you read it anyway because it's a delightful piece and gives a good context for the concept we're working with! I can only hope that this installation isn't too far removed from it - hopefully you can believe that they occur in the same universe.

Some part of Neil had actually 100%-for-real thought the Foxes would be satisfied having finally heard his genuine laugh and drop the race to be the first to crack him.

It turned out, that’s the part of him that is a moron. (Andrew’s words.)

Instead, their fervor had gotten _significantly worse._ Ever since he and Andrew had pulled that trick on them at Wymack’s, the team had only gotten more incensed and now the race was on to figure out how Andrew had made him crack and then also to replicate it.

“Isn’t the bet forfeit?” Neil asked, attempting what he felt was an obligatory protest. “Andrew won. Just because none of you bet on him -”

“ _I_ bet on him -”

“ _Exactly,_ Neil! Wymack, hush! You don't need our money and Andrew has an unfair advantage! Which means his so-called _win_ doesn’t count!” Allison even accompanied the word _win_ with actual air quotes. Neil would think she was being overdramatic, if he didn’t also think she had a point concerning Andrew’s “win” – it had been unconventional and he didn’t actually get Neil to laugh at a joke in the way the others had been trying.

It was with that slight guilt in mind that Neil, grudgingly, gave the Foxes his blessing to continue in their quest.

(“Did I say ‘part’? I meant ‘all’; all of you is a moron.”

“Now that’s just mean.”)

* * *

 

Matt thought Andrew had cracked him through delivery. So one Saturday morning, when Neil returned from his run, Matt was waiting for him on the couch.

“Neil! C’mere,” he bid, waving his hand. “About the joke thing. Can I try something?”

Trusting, and knowing that Andrew would be asleep for at least another hour, Neil replied, “Sure.”

Matt took Neil’s hand and gave a pat to his own thigh, clearly inviting Neil to have a seat. Bemused, Neil did. Arm comfortably looped around Neil’s waist, Matt began, “A jockey is entering a race on a new horse. The horse’s trainer meets him before the race and she says ‘With this horse, every time you approach a jump you have to shout ‘ALLLLEEE OOP’ in the horse’s ear. Do that and you’ll be fine.’ Now, the jockey thinks the trainer is crazy but he promises he’ll remember. So the race begins and he’s coming up to the first hurdle and you know what he does?”

Neil quirked a brow, amused at Matt’s new direction in joke telling. “Shouts ‘alle oop’?”

“First of all, it’s ‘ALLLLEEE OOP’!” Neil didn’t think it was as important a difference as Matt seemed to think, but he let it pass without comment, eager to hear the rest of the joke. “Secondly, no, Neil he thinks she’s crazy, remember? So he ignores her advice and the horse crashes through the hurdle.” Neil snorted and almost made to get off Matt’s lap, thinking that was the humourous end, but Matt held him in place with a poke to the ribs. “So now the jockey’s thinking there’s something to the trainer’s advice and when the second hurdle comes up, he whispers,” Matt leaned in close to _actually_ _whisper_ , “’alle oop’ cuz he’s embarrassed about shouting it, y’know?” Comfortable, Matt stayed a whisper’s distance away from Neil’s ear and continued his joke in a soft rumble. “But the same thing happens and the horse just crashes through the hurdle. At the third hurdle he finally thinks, ‘screw it’ and yells…?”

Sighing at Matt’s pointed pause and expectant eyes, Neil said, “ALLLLEEE OOP!”

“Yeah!” Matt smiled and gave Neil and affectionate rub. “And, of course, the horse clears the jump no problem and the rest of the race is fine. Afterwards, the trainer comes up super angry, cuz, y’know, she _knows_ the horse shouldn’t have had any problems. So she asks the jockey what went wrong and he says, ‘Nothing’s wrong with me – it’s the horse! What is he, deaf or something?’ and she replies, ‘Deaf? Deaf?! He’s not deaf. He’s blind!’”

Neil didn’t burst out laughing or fall over like he did with Andrew but he did let out a good little chuckle. It was something about the combination of the ridiculousness of Matt whispering half the joke to him, the fact that his breath had been tickling Neil’s ear the whole time, and the fact that the fictional jockey was such an arrogant jackass.

Matt’s smile was the widest Neil had ever seen it. He asked, “Is that you laughing for real?”

Neil smiled back, “Yeah. I mean, I was a bit ticklish mostly, but you got me.”

“Whatever works,” Matt squeezed him tight in a big hug. “Allison might not allow it, though, so no telling, okay?”

Neil suspected Matt’s reasons weren’t really centered around Allison denying him his winnings but he agreed, grateful for the offer of privacy for them and this moment.

* * *

 

Nicky continued in much the same fashion as he had before, with one-liners that ranged from clever to absurd, _determined_ that one of these days he’d find the one that got through to Neil. Predictably, this didn’t yield any different results than his first attempt had, although there was one notable exception.

The whole team was at Eden’s Twilight and Nicky had been playing a drinking game of his own design; he’d tell a joke and whoever _didn’t_ laugh had to take a shot. Naturally, Neil was losing, even though he tried to argue that smiling or snorting should count as laughter. Nicky’s hope was that Neil would have a looser sense of humour when he was tipsy and it might have worked, if Andrew hadn’t cut Neil off after three shots of whiskey and given him a soda to gulp each time instead. Nicky complained a little but gave it up when the others baited him as being unfit for the challenge. Allison had made it worse by challenging him to take a shot himself every time he failed to break Neil.

“Why do golfers always wear two sets of pants?” Nicky asked, voice a little slurred and eyes a little bright. After a brief moment of questioning replies from the others he proudly proclaimed, “In case they get a HOLE IN ONE!”

The upperclassmen burst into giggles and Matt actually grabbed Dan’s arm and leaned into her to steady himself, the alcohol apparently heightening the joke’s hilarity. Neil was looking at them all, back and forth between their faces, trying harder than usual to discern what was so funny because this time he was genuinely confused; he usually understood the wordplay that was going on but this line wasn’t registering as anything. He was about to ask for clarification when –

“Why would a golfer get a hole in their pants?”

The table fell dead quiet and everyone turned to look at Kevin with wide, unblinking eyes. The Queen of Exy _actually_ _squirmed_ underneath their judging gazes and tried to regain some dignity with a barked, “What!?”

“Dude,” Matt said. “It’s a golf term.”

“What is?”

“DUDE.”

“No one tell him!” Allison shouted, shooting her arms along the table as though any of them might physically approach Kevin and she was a barrier keeping them back.

“I don’t get it either,” Neil confessed, trying to shift some of the heat away from Kevin.

“You never do, love. It’s understandable.” Dan’s consoling pat to his shoulder didn’t help.

Annoyed, he explained, “No, guys, I actually don’t get this one. What’s the wordplay here?”

Nicky, Dan, Matt, and Allison all dropped their jaws. Renee was much more civilized in her approach, “Neil, what do you know about golf?”

Neil shrugged, “It’s a summer sport for rich people?”

She turned. “Kevin?”

He mumbled something like “Not important” into his glass, which he began chugging aggressively to avoid talking about it further.

It wasn’t until Nicky burst out, “IT’S BECAUSE THEY ONLY KNOW EXY” that the laughter returned and even Neil let out a secret chuckle at the sour look on Kevin’s face. No one appeared to notice. The game recommenced after that but Renee assured Neil she’d explain the joke another time and Andrew blew a humoured “Junkie” into Neil’s ear.

* * *

 

It wasn’t until the next Pamper Neil day that Renee took her chance to explain the golfer joke to Neil and Allison pitched in her own stories from the days when she golfed with her parents. The way her hands ran lovingly through his hair made him feel a little better about ruining the fun of the joke by not understanding it. Thankfully, neither of them asked him how he had lived almost 20 years without learning the basic rules and terminology of golf – he’s not sure he could have told them about his life at home or on the run when they were being so gentle and motherly today.

“Do you know how a knock knock joke is told or is that something else that passed you by?” Allison asked, sweeping some stray strands from his shoulders.

“I’ve heard them,” Neil admitted, remembering those few years in elementary school. “Never been told one, though.”

There was a brief pause where Allison took in a quick breath but she glossed over her moment by simply saying, “Knock knock.”

Neil smiled, happy to be included and not pitied for once, “Who’s there?”

“Interrupting cow.”

What? “Interrupting cow -”

“Mooooo!”

Neil huffed a little, liking the joke and the dynamic but also the _smallest_ bit disappointed he didn’t get to say his whole line. Renee, at his feet with a bottle of nail polish, had a knowing twinkle in her eye and teased, “Was that an actual laugh, Neil?”

“What!?” Allison quickly hopped around to Neil’s front, eager to see his face. She must not have heard his noise, or otherwise misinterpreted it without his expression. “Neil!”

“What?” He smiled as he asked it, more pleased about her excitement than anything else. Her eyes were hopeful though, and he knew she was totalling the pot and her soon-to-be prize winnings.

Her eyes narrowed, and she tried again, “Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Interrupting starfish.”

That made even less sense than the last one. “Interrupting star-”

And then she put her hand onto his face, fingers spread. This time he did giggle, a little out of the silliness of the joke, but a lot out of the wondering look on Allison’s face. The sound was a bit muffled from her hand ( _her **hand** was on his face and he wasn’t the least bit panicked and maybe his laughter was from relief not from mirth_ ) but he felt like his eyes might be shining. Hers definitely were.

Calm and cool, she removed her hand and moved back behind him to continue cutting his hair. “Renee,” she said, “tell dear Neil another knock knock joke.”

“Knock knock,” Renee smiled, her eyes focussed back to the task of painting Neil’s toes.

“Who’s there?”

“Suspense.”

“Suspense who?”

She finished a entire coat on his foot before she looked up through her lashes at him and then winked.

“Oh!” Allison said a second later, finally catching on to the point of the silence. “Renee!” Both Renee and Neil had to laugh at Allison’s pursuing tirade, the embarrassing result of recognizing that, for once, Neil had gotten the joke before she did.

* * *

 

To Neil’s surprise, the jokes continued. He would have thought the competition officially off, now that Allison had been victorious and had a witness to support her claim to the winnings. But the others didn’t seem to know that Allison had succeeded and they certainly weren’t behaving any differently. For instance, no one was suddenly bombarding him with knock knock jokes. Allison kept up the habit by herself, occasionally texting him a new one whenever the mood and memory struck her. Other times she made up her own which, bad as they were, got him thinking. Before he knew it, he had started a small project in the back of his brain, a surprise for Andrew, later.

Dan was the first to add a new angle to the game.

“I wanna show you something,” she said, one day during a break in practice. Kevin was discussing something with Wymack and Andrew and Renee were taking laps around the court so Neil was, unusually, alone.

Out of breath, Neil simply nodded and threw back a drink of water, watching Dan type something into her phone. “Listen to this,” she said, bringing out ear buds and giving one to Neil while putting the other in her own ear.

And then Neil was subjected to the first few seconds of what might be the most nonsensical animation he had ever encountered.

“What,” he guffawed. “Dan, what the hell is this?”

“Just watch,” she shushed him and they watched the whole thing through.

He was quiet for a moment, not quite breathing, too distracted trying to make sense of the ridiculousness he had seen and wasn’t entirely aware of Dan’s attentive eyes. Then he said, “Show me again.”

She pressed replay. And again, it rang through, “ _Narwhals, narwhals, swimming in the ocean~ Causing a commotion coz they are so awesome~!_ ”

Neil had to muffle his laugh at the absurdity of the video. Despite his efforts, he still caught the attention of Nicky and Matt, who comedically whipped their heads around like two dogs responding a whistle (not that Neil realized it).

After the second run, “What on earth _was_ that?”

“One of the greatest videos from 2009. Thought you might have missed it.” Then she chose a link to another video and added, “This too.”

This time he wasn’t quite as concerned with muffling his laughter but they only got to watch the new video three times before Wymack was calling them back to practice. Nicky caught him on his way back to position, talking quickly and out of breath despite the break they just had.

“Neil! Wait up! What was Dan showing you just now?”

He nearly laughed again just remembering it. Restraining himself to a bright smile, Neil simply sang, “Badger, badger, badger, badger,” and left to ready himself for drills with Kevin. What he missed, and what would have made him laugh again, was Nicky falling backwards into Matt’s arms, both of them shocked beyond words at the reference Neil had just made.

“C’mon boys,” a smug Dan said, slapping their frozen arms on her way through the door, “time to look alive!”

* * *

 

“You wanted to see me, Coach?”

Wymack looked up from his desk. “Neil,” he said, giving him a once-over before going back to his paperwork. “Have a seat.”

He made Neil sit in silence for another long minute before he set everything else aside and focused accusing brown eyes onto Neil’s not-the-least-bit-guilty expression. “You have any idea how much trouble you cause me, Josten?”

“I’ve lost track of the exact figure.”

“Well how about I narrow it down for you, smartass.” Then he crossed his arms atop the desk and glared when he simply growled, “Kathy Ferdinand.”

Neil rolled his eyes and glared at the corner of the room. “I gave her more views than she knows what to do with.”

“You could try doing that without also causing a scandal with the fans.”

“I didn’t say a bad word about the Ravens!”

“I meant fans of Kathy’s show.”

“She has fans??”

Wymack looked one minor aneurysm away from throwing his hands in the air and leaving it all behind. That’s when a small bit of guilt crept into Neil’s heart – if not for Wymack’s hip injury all those years ago, he could sweat out his stress in work out routines or scrimmage practice with the rest of them. Instead, David’s stress converted into frustration, which Neil knew would eventually be soothed by Abby.

There was no need to cause Wymack or Abby any undue duress, not after everything they had given him, but sometimes it felt like he couldn’t help it. Neil still wasn’t great at foreseeing consequences to his actions and he knew his coach took the brunt of the fallout, now that Riko wasn’t around to ensure that consequences reached the players personally.

“She’s asking for a public apology, you know,” Wymack eventually said, giving a loud slow exhale to accompany his words. He still didn’t sound happy but something about his loosening shoulders had Neil thinking the unrest might be aimed towards Kathy and not to him. Neil’s own shoulders (and instincts) relaxed also. “Not that you’ve ever once taken back any damn thing you’ve said. Don’t know what she’s smoking that makes her think you might comply.”

“I don’t…” Neil tried making eye contact, found it too hard to hold for longer than a second or two. “Coach, I don’t mean to make things difficult for us. If,” and here he fought to choke the words out, “If you think it will help the team, I’ll do it. Say I was wrong, say - ”

“You’ll do no such thing.” Sighing, Wymack reached a hand to work a kink in his neck. “Andrew told me you were done with this martyr shit. Foxes don’t do well at giving ground, kid, and no one expects you to say things you don’t mean. But I appreciate it.”

Nodding and taking the following awkward silence as a dismissal, Neil stood to leave.

“One more thing, Neil.”

He turned back. Wymack was biting the inside of his cheek, as if to stop himself from smiling. “I like that jersey on you.”

Neil looked down in confusion. He wasn’t sure what about his regular Fox jersey could have sparked Wymack’s attention. “I… like it too?” He tried.

Wymack looked to be straining not to give something away. “I’ll bet. Looks comfy. Like it’s made of boyfriend material.”

Startled, Neil checked the sleeve only to have his suspicions confirmed by a bold number 03. The laugh that flew out was maybe a little embarrassed but there was also something warm fluttering in his chest. “Don’t let Andrew hear you say that.”

“I’ll say what I want. Your boyfriend doesn't scare me.” Then Wymack waved an impatient hand and Neil darted out of his office, thinking he’d better rush home and change before any of the other Foxes saw him.

* * *

 

They were sharing cigarettes on the roof when Neil decided to spring his surprise project on Andrew.

“So I’ve been working on an original joke. Wanna hear it?” Andrew's only sign of permission was moving his eyes from the horizon to Neil’s smiling face. “What’s short, blonde, and always armed?” Andrew glared. Neil finished anyway. “A moron’s boyfriend.” Then he giggled like a child teasing about their first crush.

Andrew had that look like he wanted to shove Neil off the roof and never look back. Then he tapped the ash off his cigarette and retorted, “What’s annoying, stupid, and scarred all over?”

Still smiling, Neil guessed, “A moron?”

“Trouble,” Andrew corrected.

Neil hummed in understanding. Then, after a quick 'yes or no', he straddled Andrew's thighs and tried, “What do you call a goalkeeper with a .927 save percentage?”

Seeing Andrew roll his eyes, Neil answered quickly, before Andrew could degrade himself. “Amazing, Andrew.” His hands cupped Andrew’s face, wanting this affection to be directly aimed into Andrew’s eyes. “You call him ‘amazing’.” He could tell his voice had taken on that soft, wondering quality it always did when he couldn’t believe quite Andrew was actually real.

"It's not that amazing, junkie," Andrew grumbled, taking a drag of his cigarette and avoiding Neil's eyes. "Doesn't even make the top 10 percentages in the pro teams right now."

"It makes the top 11 and Kathy left out that you were improperly medicated then," Neil argued, trying to bring back Andrew's attention. "And she definitely doesn't know you were in withdrawal when you played those games." It was the soft strokes of his thumbs he thought, that pulled Andrew's eyes to his. "You're young and adjusting, 'Drew. Ninety-two isn't your best, I know it isn't."

Andrew didn’t seem to know what to do. His eyes were darting quickly between Neil’s blue ones, trying to find a lie to call him out on but finding nothing. Part of Neil relished in overwhelming Andrew like this, because he knew he was the only person who could. No one had bothered to shower Andrew in praise before, or compliment him romantically (even if it was about Exy). Neil wasn’t much of a charmer but he’d try his best to woo him if it meant Andrew could hear he was amazing and think it might be true.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” came Andrew’s immediate answer, desperate to end the moment.

Just in case that’s all it was, Neil stopped half-way in and closed his eyes, giving Andrew some time to recover. He felt a huff of breath over his lips and then a mumbled, “Pipe dream” before Andrew tugged him all the way in where Neil could prove that every inch of him was real.

**Author's Note:**

> 5 Things fics don't need a timeline, right? They're just kind of supposed to be suspended in another plane where time isn't real, right? Who knows when these events take place??? I just couldn't make my mind up as to whether the Jack/Sheena freshmen were supposed to be there or not so I avoided it altogether.
> 
> The videos that Dan shows Neil are [Narwhals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwqXuMPsoc) and [Badgers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI) both by MrWeebl; hilarious viral vids that I pulled out of some faraway memory. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Laughter Is Infectious (The Best Medicine Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963297) by [moonix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonix/pseuds/moonix)




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